The first counter proposal offered by the National Hockey
League Players Association apparently did nothing to close the gap in negotiations
for a new collective bargaining agreement.

The current CBA expires in exactly one month and
commissioner Gary Bettman has already said the owners are prepared to lock the
players out for the second time in eight years if a new deal isn't reached by
Sept. 15.

The sides have been negotiating for more than a month and
held sessions Tuesday and Wednesday without any progress.

"There's still a wide gap between us with not much time to
go," Bettman said Wednesday, according to a story on CBC.ca. "I do
think it's fair to say that the sides are still apart — far apart — and have
different views of the world and the issues."

The owners' original proposal July 13 included a reduction in
the players' share of hockey-related revenues from 57 percent to 46 and that
appears to be the major issue in negotiations. The NHLPA claims its share would
actually be more like 43 percent under the proposal.

The players countered Tuesday by agreeing to accept a smaller
reduction of revenues over the next three seasons as long as some of that money
goes into a fund to help financially strapped teams. The NHLPA also asked for a
limit on team spending when it comes to the likes of coaches, scouts and the front
office.

According to a USA Today story, union chief Donald Fehr said the
concessions the players would agree to make could be worth at least $465 million
and as much as $800 million if the league's revenues continue to grow the way
they have the past two years.

The owners apparently aren't buying that line of
thinking even though NHL revenues were reportedly $3.3 billion last season. That's believed to be a $1 billion increase since the last lockout.

"This is an industry where the owners
insisted upon and got enormous concessions from the players last time with the
stated expectation that would fix things," Fehr said in the USA Today
story. "Their position now is it didn't fix things. Now, the question then
becomes: What do you do about that? From the players' standpoint, it doesn't
necessarily follow that players should get paid less."

After the last lockout wiped out the entire 2004-05 season,
the players agreed to accept a salary cap, something they vowed never to do
when the previous CBA expired.

Although negotiations will continue Thursday, Fehr isn't
expected to be there. Instead, he'll be meeting with players in Chicago and
British Columbia for several days, according to a story on NHL.com. But Fehr
and Bettman plan to speak on the phone while Fehr is on the road.

"I know what the game
means and I know how important it is for our franchises and our game to be
healthy from an economic standpoint, and we're working very, very hard," Bettman
said in the NHL.com story. "You know, it takes two sides to make a deal,
it takes two sides to negotiate, and it takes two sides if it all goes bad.